Think of passwords as keys. Use a different one for each account, as if it is stolen it can be used to take over all your accounts.

Make it strong by using a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. The longer it is, the better.

Avoid using personal information, dictionary words and consecutive numbers as these can be guessed.

Consider using a passphrase. For example, choose a song or phrase and take the first letter of each word, substitute in numbers and special characters. e.g. Tx2l*hIwwUR (decrypts as "twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are").

There is an internet fraud practice known as 'phishing' which is the illegal gathering of personal information by deception. Fraudsters pose as a trusted source (like your bank), and try to get you to divulge your personal details.

If you suspect that you have received a fraudulent email:

Don’t click on any links or attachments, and check the sender's address.

Report a phishing email that appears to be from British Airways by sending it to phishing@email.ba.com (please note that we cannot enter into correspondence over emails sent to this address, therefore you will not receive a reply)

Legitimate emails from British Airways will contain your booking reference and the email will not have been sent from a web-based mail server such as gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc. In addition, we will never request money payments through a third party or promise you any kind of cash prize.

Here are the incidents of fraudulent emails and other phishing scams that we're currently aware of:

April 2017:

Some people are receiving emails from a fake email address "flights@britishairways.com" with a Subject Line "Voucher #57487 - 2 free flights". Also look out for "Travel Reservation for xxx" / Travel Confirmation - #115157487" or "Travel Confirmation for xxx" (the "xxx" will match the part of your email address before the "@" symbol). In the main section of the email it refers to "Travel Confirmation - (#115157487)". This isn't a legitimate British Airways promotion and we didn't send you the message.

There are also other fake emails offering vouchers toward holidays or flights with us, in exchange for clicking a link and providing personal information. The Subject line is usually "Choose your destination" or "Where to next?" Again, this isn't an offer we're aware of and your personal information could be in danger if you follow these links.

Several people have reported receiving WhatsApp messages making reference to accessing a link for a voucher to use for BA flights. We don't use WhatsApp as a channel to send out promotions or offers and this isn't an offer we're involved in.

November 2016:

An email is being sent out with the subject line "Your Order #27395739 / 24 November 2016" or "Your Order #13847935 / 24 November 2016" (the date might change). The message is from tickets.BA@email.ba.air.com and refers to the booking reference "3OWJ13". This email was not sent by BritishAirways. If you have a concern whether a booking you receive an email about is legitimate, you can check via Manage My Booking.

August 2016:

1) Facebook-related fake British Airways pages with offers for free First class flight tickets (sometimes with hotel stays too). Most mention it's because of our 40th or 42nd birthday. We're sorry but this isn't an offer we're running and it's not from our legitimate/official British Airways Facebook page.

2) Some people have reported receiving an email with this subject line: "British Airways - You won a 10,000 miles flying card / Promo #99993392". The message refers to offering a gift card with the value 399 GBP. Please do not click the link nor reply to the email. This email was not sent by British Airways.

3) There are additional emails being sent offering non-existent vouchers for the amounts of 2,500 GBP, 1,000 GBP or £1,000. These emails have a few different subject lines, including references to “free flights” or “travel discounts” or “complimentary flights”. Again, these emails were not sent by us and the email address is not one British Airways would use. If you hover your cursor over any links in the email, you will see that these do not direct to ba.com. Our logo is also being used fradulently in these instances.

4) An email is being sent out with a subject line: "Your e-ticket receipt 1TKG86: LHR-JFK 30 Sep 2016". It is then referring to the following booking reference and payment amount: "Thanks for the purchase! Booking number: 1TKG86 - Your credit card has been charged for $691.62." This booking doesn't exist and you haven't been charged by British Airways.

5) Some people have received an email referring to booking number "BRAIR-12586-GB". This reference doesn't exist, nor is there a travel package to win.

March-May 2016:

We're aware of fraudulent "WhatsApp" or text messages that tell you there is a package/suitcase/letter in your name that is very valuable (although you had no idea about this parcel/package until you received this message) and which needs you to pay some money to 'release' it from British Airways World Cargo. Usually the people sending these message ask for the money to be sent through a company such as Western Union, or another money-sender. British Airways or IAG Cargo would not pass customers items to a third party to arrange repatriation. We would not collect any fees/charges in this way.

April 2016:

An email with the subject line "E-ticket confirmation" has been mailed out, referring to a fake e-ticket number "549843215952132" and a ticket price "2216.45 GBP". This email was not sent by us, and this ticket does not exist.

When you buy a British Airways ticket over the Internet, your web browser connects with the website through an SSL ("Secure Sockets Layer"). SSL is an industry-standard protocol for encryption over the Internet.

All of your personal information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet, to and from www.ba.com. When information is encrypted, it is scrambled between your computer and our server. The information is only unscrambled when it safely reaches us. It's fast and safe, and it ensures that your personal information cannot be read by anyone else.

However, as with any standard email, emails containing your personal data sent to or from British Airways will travel in a non-encrypted format.

Once you have made a booking

As you make a booking we need to capture your personal details to go into the booking. At this point the information is encrypted. You can tell this is happening as browsers will display a key or padlock at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Completing the transaction

When you send your personal details to us, none of the information is stored on the website, it is passed straight back to our secure servers at our Heathrow headquarters, where it only exists as part of the record of your transaction.

Security messages

If you see a security message during the booking process, it is simply informing you that you are entering a secure area of the site. You will also see this message when you are severing the connection with our secure server, and moving into an open, public area of the site. At this point all of your personal information has been deleted, whether or not you actually completed a purchase. Your browser can be configured to display this message or not, as you choose.

Your personal information

British Airways considers your privacy to be of the utmost importance, and we are governed by the UK Data Protection Act 1998. If you are concerned with how we might collect and use information about you, you can find a complete explanation in our Privacy Policy.

British Airways makes every effort to ensure only authorized access is made to your booking when using Manage My Booking. This includes applying different levels of authentication depending on who you are and which services are being used.

If you are not a member of the Executive Club or you are a member but you are not logged into your account, then you will need to provide your booking reference and your surname to view your itinerary, add and change seat and special meal requests, add your Advance Passenger Information (API) or email your itinerary to a friend.

You will need to provide additional information to view details of any special meal previously requested, view or change your API or to print or email your e-ticket receipt. We will not ask for new information as part of this process; it will already have been provided by whoever made your booking at that time or by you when updating your booking. The information which may be requested includes your passport number and associated travel details, or all or part of the credit or debit card number of the card used to make your booking. If any of this information is not attached to your booking, then these second level authenticated services will not be used.

If you are a member of the Executive Club and you are logged into your account, we will recognise the bookings which you have associated to you through your account. We will only request additional information from you (as described above) to view or change another person’s API (on the same booking as yourself), or to print or email your e-ticket receipt.

Note: This information reflects our current security policy. If there are any changes in industry standards, the law or our procedures, the information in these pages will be updated.

Every effort is made to block suspicious activity, however in some circumstances a small number of customers may have their access to ba.com blocked.

If you are using a desktop PC or laptop

British Airways uses an external company, Webroot BrightCloud, as a threat intelligence service to enable traffic from genuine customers to flow through. Should you get an error message to say that the ba.com page you were trying to visit has been blocked, please follow the below instructions.

You will only be asked for your card payment details if you wish to change or refund your booking on ba.com. We require this information specifically to debit or credit your card in relation to your booking.

Legitimate emails from British Airways will contain your booking reference and the email will not have been sent from a web-based mail server such as gmail, hotmail or yahoo.

British Airways will never request money payments through a third party, such as Western Union.

If you have reason to suspect an email claiming to be from British Airways is fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@email.ba.com so we can investigate its authenticity and take appropriate action. Please note that we cannot enter into correspondence over emails sent to this address, therefore you will not receive a reply.